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Jeff Jarrett Reflects On WWE’s Booking Sting To Lose At WrestleMania 31
Image Credit: WWE
On the latest episode of My World With Jeff Jarrett, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about his relationship with Sting, his WrestleMania loss to Triple H in 2015, and more. You can check out some highlights below:
On meeting Sting for the first time: “I mean, meeting him, it was a, ‘Hello,’ and I’m sure my dad probably either gave me the eyes, or I’d gotten the eyes enough to, ‘All right, go back to your room.’ To talk business, I mean it’s just how it was. He didn’t talk business around family. It’s just the culture. So I mean, that was a ‘Hello,’ and then I go back to playing basketball and all that kind of stuff.
“And so they started in the territory. And it wasn’t until the summer of ’86, I started in April of ’86. You know, they were in and out of Tennessee very quick. It’s just, it’s amazing — and look, my dad likes to tell the story that he gave Warrior and Sting their start. Because his self-deprecating humor, he’s also the one that fired them both. He fired them both. And then here’s — the ascension of those two guys in the business, they were both on top in the industry, Sting in WCW, Warrior in WWF, within 24 months of getting fired in Memphis. Think about that, Conrad. It’s pretty amazing.”
On his favorite version of Sting: “When he went into the Crow, and — you know, I don’t obviously know the stats like you or others will. But we’re talking about, ‘Gotta put 18,000 or close to it this weekend.’ WCW’s live event business was red hot at this time. nWo had formed a year or so before this. They put tickets on sale, they sold out. It was really really hot. This — I think the Crow character was maybe peak fandom that was probably the most successful. So my businessman goes, ‘Oh, it’s simple, Conrad. I’ll take this one. It’s that.’
“I personally, as a kid who was young in the business and was watching — I mean, I VCR’d TBS on Saturday nights in my first couple years of the business because I was doing Memphis TV on Saturday morning and Nashville Saturday night, so I still wanted to watch their show. I love Surfer Sting as I call it my personal fandom. The Joker deal, that thing, he made that his own. To me, it was highly entertaining. And as far as a sports entertainment perspective, I think those were Sting’s best sports entertainment promos. He felt that character, that was his idea. That’s all Stinger, he made it his own. And I thought about the sports entertainment aspect, it was dynamite.
“My personal favorite is this last run. It is to me, so unexpected. Again, I did some things with him and we’ll get to it. When he was not actively wrestling, he was for lack of a better word, put out to pasture in WWE. His wrestling career was over. And so me sitting at home and being the wrestling junkie that I am, and hearing ‘Oh, Sting, is that…? I gotta watch.’ And him debuting on dynamite. I — yeah. I was so damn happy for him. Because I’m just like — Okay, this for sure, is the beginning of the end, but he’s gonna go out — I had no idea we’d end up this way. But this version is my favorite.”
On Sting’s WrestleMania 31 loss to Triple H: “My gut reaction, and almost the same when Taker lost the Streak. Almost exactly in my gut, I said, ‘Who got in Vince’s ear? Somebody got in his ear. Somebody got his ear.’ It doesn’t feel like a promoter mentality that — again, it’s not a Raw, it’s not a TV show. It’s the big one. Not just the WWE, but professional wrestling in and of itself — consumer confidence is built on the protagonists winning the money match. And it didn’t happen. I thought somebody got his ear.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My World With Jeff Jarrett with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
